


Binding of the Boobs

by TimMcGee



Category: NADDPOD - Fandom, Not Another D&D Podcast
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Drabble, Gen, Insecurity, episode 73 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-25 09:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20374666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimMcGee/pseuds/TimMcGee
Summary: What was Akarot's plan?-A drabbleBonus drabbles - Hardwon





	1. Bev's Binding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Neature_Nerd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neature_Nerd/gifts).

> Cross posted from my Tumblr (hey-cabinets-i-changed-my-icon). Thank you the beautiful and wonderful Neature_Nerd for prompting this.

Akarot kicks Beverly over so he’s looking down into Beverly’s face. Moonshine unable to get out the bindings in time shouts at Akarot, “Leave him alone, you inhospitable devil!”

Akarot chuckles, reaches his hand over Beverly’s gasping body and sending black glowing tendrils into Beverly where some appear to be forming a dark circlet in his hair, “Hmmmm, it seems Moonshine, that I have picked up something a little more  _ powerful  _ than that trinket [gestures to the Thinking Cap on her head]. Don’t worry. I’m just reuniting a family.” With that Akarot teleports out with Bev and the remaining dark knights.

“NOOOO!” Moonshine screams as she tries to cast any spells to bring them back. Hardwon’s and Maverus’ panicked shouts from below are the only things that pierce the veil of desperation, and with one last look where they disappeared, Moonshine descends to help.

As Hardwon’s hears Moonshine come down, he quickly looks and seeing only her ask, “Hey Moonshine, is Bev alright?”

When he doesn’t hear an answer right away, Hardwon looks back and sees tears silently streaming down her devastated face. Begging, Hardwon croaks out, “Moonshine, please, oh god Moonie. PLEASE, no. He’ll be fine. He’s GOING to be fine with th-that reviv-a-fy spell right?? *broken whisper* not my little brother too, PLEASE GODS.”

Choking on tears, Moonshine tries to say, “Please, Hardwon *harsh wet inhale* we-we need to fix this *shaky exhale* fo-for Bev”

“No *breaking* Moonie.”

Moonshine stands for a moment looking at the wreckage that has happened and some still crumbling parts of the castle, feeling like an absolute failure,  _ that she should’ve done more to save Bev, that what’s the use of the Crown of Knowledge if it couldn’t help save The Heart.  _ As Moonshine is feeling the lowest she has ever felt, she looks at Hardwon, Maverus, and the magic city horn wondering if they’ll be able to save everyone else, when she feels something like a warm summer breeze on her face that clears away the fog that was settling in. With a new rush on certainty, Moonshine knows she will save the city. For Bev. For the halfling of the greatest hospitality she has known, she will save the city.

When Hardwon realizes what Moonshine is saying without saying anything, he feels the air leave the room. It’s like he’s back in the Shadow Realm as a vampire. No hope, no need to breathe, no need to live. Just a worthless, unnecessary burden on the group. Watching the tears run down Moonshine’s face, Hardwon crashes to his knees as though someone had cut his strings. Hardwon pays no heed to the remaining enemies still in the room as his painfully small world comes crashing down once more.

All the while Hardwon is thinking,  _ Why did it have to be Bev? Why not me? My life isn’t worth anything, he had everything to look forward to.  _ He  _ was going to be the One to save the world. I was never going to be anything more than a spare fighter. Why couldn’t I haven’t taken his place? _

Between the four of them, they are able to restore the enchantments to the castle so it is no longer in danger of falling, saving the day again. They try to regroup and Moonshine tries to tell them what happened upstairs to Beverly.

“Moonshine. Wha-what does this mean for Akarot taking Bev?”

“I-i.....I think Akarot took Bev alive because...please, Melora let this not be true... Akarot can bind Bev like in that one Alanis timeline and use Bev as-as a powerful weapon.”

“............FUCK. I don’t think I can fight him again... It was hard enough when Maribel controlled him, and he was nowhere NEAR as strong as he is now. Gods. Why couldn’t I have protected him more?”

“Hardwon.....what’s going to happen if the binding breaks after Akarot uses him?”

  
  
  



	2. Hardwon's Breakdown

Hardwon splashes ice-cold water on his face, scrubbing at the dirt and tears left from the day. Hardwon dries his face with a stupid fancy towel that is just like the ones at Bev's- Hardwon angrily throws the towel across the bathroom before everything else leaves him and he grasps at the sides of the sink. The fragile porcelain seems to creak under the weight as Hardwon shakily tries to remain in the cruel comfort of apathy.

However, as he raises his head and locks eyes with his new reflection in the mirror, spying the pointed ears, Hardwon's legs collapse sending him to his knees clutching the sink. Burying his face in his elbow to muffle his sobs, Hardwon remembers.

Remembers the last time he has felt this hopeless. It was not in Shadowfell. Not in the Fae Wild. Not in Frostwind. But all the way back in Moonstone, when he first sat at the bar and realized no one would care. No one would care if this poor orphaned boy lives or dies. There was no one back in Iron Deep, there was no one in all of Bahumia that would be affected by anything that happened to him. The wandering poor orphan boy, forever searching for a place to belong. Never imagining that thanks to a halfling version of his bully, he'd find everything in a crick elf and halfling. 

Hardwon rubs his face harshly into his elbow and heavily sits back against the cabinets, still trying to get his emotions under control, so he can go out and be strong for Moonshine. Still shakily breathing, Hardwon tries to focus on anything else, but he keeps remembering all his failures. First, his secret dream of a happy life with Jemma, then the drug addiction, dooming his mom, completely losing Jemma, discovering the consequences of killing Galad, becoming a vampire, and now losing Bev.

Hardwon chokes on his tears as he remembers how Beverly changed from some rich boy scout he was paid to protect to someone he'd gladly lay his life down for. From a halfling who was so obviously a rich person and seemed so sure of his place in the world to a halfling who had given Hardwon a purpose, a place to strive for, who had helped him uncover his past, who had helped him see true love can have happy endings.

The halfling who calls him brother. Is gone.


End file.
